Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:31 am Post subject: How to know the resolution of in any mainframe session?

Hi all,

I am working on a tool and that tool is dependent on the resolution of mainframe screen/session. So is there any command or panel using which I can get this information?

FYIP....

I am working on a VBScript Macro, and to make this macro independent of the sessions that users would be using, I need this information so that I can code my Macro in the manner that it doesn't depend on the resolution like 24*80 or 27*132 or 43*80 that user might use.

Thanks a lot for your input this is exactly the same that I was looking for. But this is true for the other systems. But unfortunately our system/sessions are configured such that we are not going to the terminal option by 0.1, but somewhere else, so is there any command to view it?

Actually this command takes you to the panel that provides you the features of any session terminal, e.g. Resolution etc. It also provides you with the option to change the session characteristics of the terminal.

It is not clear what you mean by resolution. The emulator can be resized by the user to many different sizes.

But ISPF still only uses the dimensions of the hardware that is being emulated. Typically, the dimensions are 24 x 80. No matter how the user resizes, the screen dimension seen by ISPF does not change. That is, ISPF is not aware of screen size changes made by the user.

If you want the dimensions of the screen and are in ISPF, use variables ZSCREEND and ZSCREENW.

Become familiar with Appendix D and E of the ISPF Dialog Developer's Guide and Reference. They are your friends.

If ISPF option 0 is set to screen format of 'std', it returns 80 x 24.

For screen format of 'max', it returns 132 x 27.

But I believe the screen format setting is global for all of the TSO session. One application will not see a different dimension than another. When the user changes the setting, all applications will see the change.

If you want to code your application to use the whole screen, use the variables above.

Thank you all for the suggestions and comments. That was really helpful in understanding many things, but the problem is still there.

I will simplify the problem

PROBLEM - In any mainframe session how to decide whether the user is logged on in 24*80 resolution or 32*80 or 27*132 or 43*80 either by issuing any command or though the values that appear in user panels.

I hope I am clear this time.

@Scherrer - It would have been of great help if I could tell you what exactly I am doing but my company policies don't allow me to do that. I am extremely sorry for the little information that I provided

We understand that you shouldn't post company secrets, but the kind of code you are working is generic (at least at this point).

If you could describe some unrelated, but similar process, we might still be able to help. For example if you are working on something for an insurance company, maybe make a similar example of a bank .

Actually i will keep that as the last option to use the REXX panel and then getting the values. As this might add some additional complexities in my tool. But yes, I admit that I was not aware of this way as I am not much into REXX. Thanks again for the inputs

Regarding the tool that I am developing here is the piece of information that I guess will not harm me

Actually this piece of information I need as I am going to automate the DUMPING of spool output in permanent dataset with the use of VBscript MACRO. and I need to know the screen resolution so that before doing a SCROLL how much jobs I have to DUMP.
e.g. in 24*80 in total there are almost 19 jobs present and in 27*132 there are 22. So I want to make this tool generic for all of the sessions. So if through any command or something if I am able to give my MACRO information about the resolution then I can use variables instead of hard coded values to make my toll session independent.

I hope this information will help you to understand what is the root cause of the question.

What if someone has their command bar at the top instead of the bottom? What if they have it at the bottom, but tab takes them through the menus also? What if they run this Macro while they are in a split screen view? What if they have the KEYLIST displayed?

Even if you know the resolution, you need to know all of these other things to determine their usable screen size for your macro and what affect any keystrokes you plan on sending have. A good design should be resolution independent.

You should write this in some mainframe side tool. The spool lives on the mainframe and you want the datasets to live on the mainframe after processing. SDSF and CA-View have mechanisms to put spool and job output to datasets. Why use something external to that system to do the processing and just to put the data back on that system.

It sounds like you are trying to replicate what CA-View and other products do and do pretty well. In my shop when you run in a certain job class, the job output is put to CA-View which holds the data in a file and has rules about how long to keep it before rolling it out.

The problem is - We run almost 200-300 jobs per day and we have to retain that for future reference. So to retain them in permanent dataset is till now a manula process in our project which takes almost 1-1.5 hrs per day. Using this tool we will be able to complete this process in mere 5-6 mins.

So actually I am not replicating them but using the facility that thay are providing for my pupose.